Jun

[Jun]

Dear everybody,

Please advise me about RSMeans reputation in US as a Estimation guideline in US.

Is RSMeans reliable to use for bidding cost calculation? or is it match to actual work in field?

Also, if anyone know about SES (Strategic Estimating System), Compass who are designated companies for estimating work.

What about their reputation or status in estimating field in US?

For your support.

Thanks.

 

[Michael Scott PE]

We do not use RSMeans at my company.  In fact, when I was in college and we were working on our senior design projects our professors even told us to stray away from using RSMeans for the estimating tasks of the project.  RSMeans does have a lot of good information, but you can get better information by just picking up the phone or sending an email.  Various aspects of the construction industry are so fluid anymore that unless RSMeans is updating their information on a weekly basis you're going to find that a lot of the data they publish can be outdated.  Wage rates vary county-to-county, equipment rates vary by region, material costs can vary week-to-week (especially steel products), and so on.  My suggestion to construction estimators is to use current wage rates, whether it's from the local unions or prevailing wages, reach out to rental companies for equipment rates, and source material pricing from vendors to ensure you're using up-to-date information.  RSMeans is a good tool for up-front, high-level estimating but in order to provide more firm numbers getting real data is key. 

That's just my two cents.  I work for a more specialized construction company so RSMeans doesn't offer as much to us as it might offer to someone doing commercial or industrial construction (brickwork, steel erection, mass concrete pours) so I'd suggest researching all of your options before throwing RSMeans out the window.